Quartz

Popular Colour Schemes:

Textures & Finishes:

The texture and finish of quartz worktops can significantly impact their appearance and feel. Common options include:

Quartz worktops are engineered stone surfaces composed of approximately 90-95% ground natural quartz crystals combined with 5-10% polymer resins and pigments. This unique composition results in a non-porous, durable material that offers the best of both worlds: the strength and beauty of natural stone with the consistency and customisation possibilities of engineered materials. 

Natural quartz is mined from quarries around the world, the mined quartz is crushed into small particles and refined to remove impurities. The refined quartz particles are mixed with resins, pigments, and occasionally recycled materials like glass or metallic flakes, the mixture is then poured into moulds and subjected to intense vibration to remove air bubbles. 

Slabs are cured under high heat and pressure, which solidifies the resin and creates a dense, non-porous surface, the cured slabs are polished or textured to achieve the desired finish. This carefully controlled manufacturing process ensures consistency in colour, pattern, and quality across batches, something that natural stone cannot guarantee. 

The industry standard manufacturing lines are made by Breton: https://breton.it/products/plants/bretonstone-silica-free-slab-production-plant 

See our detailed guide about how quartz is manufactured here 

While quartz worktops are often compared to natural stone options like granite or marble, there are several key differences:

The slabs are thoroughly checked before being loaded by forklift onto one of our saws with tilting tables. 

DXF files are uploaded from the laser template and nested onto the slab, the saw then cuts out the worktops to the exact sizes with a 400mm water-cooled diamond blade. The primary saws can also cut the unpolished cutouts and large radius curves. 

The polished worktops are then loaded onto CNC machines which cut the polished cutouts again using several diamond grinding and polishing heads, allowing for the creation of drainer grooves, and some more detailed polished edges. 

Lastly, the tops go to our skilled masons for any hand finishing that is required, and final quality checking.  

4. Now upstands are cut to size and silicone to the wall, and sinks are silicon to create a watertight seal. The worktops and kitchen are then given a final clean.

The cost of quartz worktops can vary but there is generally an option for most budgets. There are multiple factors to consider when calculating how much it will cost:

See some real price comparisons here:

Low Price:

Medium Price:

High Price:

You can visit in person with a plan, send an email, request a site visit, or email a kitchen plan to us. You can also get a price in a couple of minutes using our free worktop pricing tool 

Yes, we have a showroom with 100's of samples, and lots of full slabs in our yard. It is well worth visiting to see our full range of materials; if possible, bring samples of kitchen door paint, flooring, wall colours, textiles, etc. so you can put these together with the samples to get the design just right. 

Customers often find it useful to bring door, flooring and other samples to find the perfect worktop for their interior scheme. 

Thinking about refreshing your kitchen without the hassle or added expense of renovating your entire space? At Henderstone, we offer replacement worktop services for customers throughout Kent; we will remove your old surface, and replace it with a new bespoke-cut stone worktop. Fresh worktops can make a world of difference and are guaranteed to give your kitchen a new lease of life.

For all the information you need on our replacement worktops, see our blog post here

Homeowners should not be worried about silica. It is only harmful when the material is dry-grinded and creates dust; once installed in your home, there is no risk. As a company, we only wet cut in our factory, use water walls for extraction to clean the air, and employees always wear dust masks and powered respirators. All this ensures we meet the highest standards of health and safety requirements. 

Most stone manufacturers are also now using minimal silica in their compounds such as Silestone Hybriq: https://www.cosentino.com/en-gb/silestone/hybriq-technology-pro/

When deciding what material you are going to use for your quartz worktops, it is important to first consider the differences between the vast array of quartz manufacturers that we work with. They each have their pros and cons, and some will work better for some people than others, so you must research into what the manufacturer is offering before finalising your decision. Some of the factors to consider are: 

Here is a short summary of our main quartz suppliers and the key information you need to know:

Standard slabs: 3000x1400mm

Most manufacturers now supply Jumbo slabs at 3250x1590mm

A few offer Super Jumbo slabs at 3400x1950mm

What Thickness Can I Have for My Worktop? 

Standard thicknesses are 12mm, 20mm, and 30mm; however, quartz can be mitred down to create any thickness